Following the accidental haul of the 18-foot-long rare shark species off Key West in Florida, California, another exceptional find had the scientific community all eyes again on the goblin shark photos, taken by 63-year-old fisher Carl Moore for his son.
To begin with, the goblin shark's revolting appearance alone is enough to hold anyone's attention. One cannot miss its notable goblin-like features, particularly its sharp flat snout that dwarfs its eyes and huge protruding jaws lined with nail-like teeth.
However, looking closer at the images, particularly the one where it depicted the whole body of the goblin shark dangling above the heap of red shrimps, scientists have spotted deep-sea giant isopods in the sundry catch from 2,000 feet below.
Giant isopods or Bathynomus giganteus are the largest known isopods in the world, living in the depths of the world's oceans. Approximately 7.5 and 14.2 inches in length and weighs around 17 kilograms; these creatures are larger than its cousins on land, such as the woodlouse that grows to only half an inch.
"Imagine a pill bug the size of a house cat," said marine biologist Andrew Thaler in an interview with CNN.
Often regarded as scavengers of the sea, giant isopods feed on dead whales, squid and other fish that settle on the ocean floor. However, studies suggest that they may also eat live creatures such as sponges and sea cucumbers. Giant isopods are also notorious for attacking trawl catches.
"Food in the deep sea is very rare. That is one of the defining characteristics of the deep sea. There is no sunlight, so there are no plants for the most part," Thaler explained, while noting that if these scavengers get a chance, they would devour carcasses as much as they can in order to survive for months. "They have to be able to store all this food in their body because they don't know when they will feed again."
Goblin sharks are also deep-sea lurkers, preying mostly on what they could find in the oceans' bottom. These include crabs and mollusks, and even isopods. Moore's catch is the second goblin shark caught in the Gulf, with the first one fished out in 2002.
During the 18-day trip when Moore and his fellow shrimp fishers casted their trawls, the species were probably busy feasting on a dead whale, Thaler deduced.
"I've never seen that many in one place at the same time before," he said.
